Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup is something, I make all year round,  but on Passover, I do not use anything that is not pure.  When we have it, we are getting pure flavor of the chicken and vegetables and it special.  I am not sure why, during the rest of the year, I add spices.  In my mind, it won't be good enough but it is.

I was tired when I began the soup, a few days before Pesach. (Passover)  I got as far as dropping a chicken in a huge pot of water.  I decided, I would come back after a short nap and put up the vegetables.  Fortunately, my husband is far from helpless and he covered it, added water, and left it on a low flame, overnight.

Parsley in photo was not used.  We had our own.

In the morning, I was quite relieved.  I also had planned to make other dishes and did not want to work with the soup.  I took out a number of storage containers.  (My husband was curious when I came home with a new set of containers.  I think it came with 17 in different sizes.  He was sure, they would sit on the shelf all Pesach.  The soup ended up using all of them of a particular size.  Now, I have a freezer filled with soup.  As I need more soup, I remove them and back into the pot, they go.  I add the vegetables and my parsley is coming up in the back yard so lots of that went in.

Chicken Soup for Passover        Ingredients:

3 quarts of water to start with
1-2 chickens or pieces of chicken to make up this amount (I used dark meat)
2 large onions
1 large sweet potato
6 carrots
3 parsnips
handful of parsley, chopped

Method:

Put large pot with water on burner on medium heat.
Add chickens and cook for 2 hours.  I cook for more up to overnight.
Add vegetables, one hour before removing from heat.
Add parsley in the last ten minutes.
Remove the chicken and take pieces off the bone and then replace these in pot.

Let cool.  Skim off fat.
Freeze or serve.

On Passover, we serve this with egg drops or our own noodles and on the last day, we serve it with matzah balls (kneidlach).


Chicken soup truly seems to heal.

Did you know that Typical Chinese chicken soup is made from old hens and are seasoned with ginger, spring onions, star anise, black pepper, soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil?. A more elaborate version can be made from freshly killed old hen and various herbs such as ginseng, dried goji and old ginger root. The soup is then boiled for hours.

To learn more about chicken soup in other countries, check Wiki. 

linked to Traditional Tuesdays